1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to sodium-beta"-alumina and more particularly to a technique for forming a sodium-beta"-alumina single crystal film.
2. Description of the Related Art
In addition to being a super-ionic conductor, sodium-beta"-alumina may be used as a host for luminescent ions. Interesting optical properties have been found for lanthanide and transition metal ion-exchanged single crystals of sodium-beta"-alumina. Phase conjugation by degenerate four wave mixing has been demonstrated by Nd.sup.3+ -doped sodium-beta"-alumina. Efficient energy transfer has been detected in co-doped Ce.sup.3+ -Nd.sup.3+ -sodium-beta"-alumina and Cu.sup.+ -sodium-beta"-alumina shows optical memory and tunable emission properties throughout the visible spectrum. These unique optical properties when combined with the separation of the crystal-growth and doping process lead to promising potential applications in solid-state lasers, holography, signal and image processing, phosphor chemistry and other optical components and devices.
Practical applications will require large size single crystal sodium-beta"-alumina. It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel method of growing large size single-crystal sodium-beta"-alumina films.